swapping out electric stove for gas

[Anonymous]

We will be moving into a new house that has an electric stove. The inspector was pretty certain the kitchen was plumbed for gas (and the house has gas heat). Is there anything in particular I need to know about switching the current stove for a gas stove? Would I have to call a special person to get it hooked up after it's otherwise installed by the delivery folks, and who would that be? Do I risk screwing up the kitchen? Obviously I need to match the dimensions of the current stove ...

I have cooked with gas for 20 years but have never had to replace a stove so this is new to me! Thanks!

[Anonymous]

You'd need a plumber to run a gas line. How easy and expensive that is will depending on where the gas connection is. You'd also need a proper exhaust system. Most stoves are standard size so gas vs. electric will not matter.

[Anonymous]

A licensed plumber can hook it up to gas. Make sure the fan and vent are sized appropriately and rated for gas fuel. Gas produces some air pollutants so you want to do the math.

[Anonymous]

I know you’re a gas cooker, but it does release pollutants into our homes. Would you consider switching to an induction instead?

But yeah a plumber will hook it up for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We will be moving into a new house that has an electric stove. The inspector was pretty certain the kitchen was plumbed for gas (and the house has gas heat). Is there anything in particular I need to know about switching the current stove for a gas stove? Would I have to call a special person to get it hooked up after it's otherwise installed by the delivery folks, and who would that be? Do I risk screwing up the kitchen? Obviously I need to match the dimensions of the current stove ...

I have cooked with gas for 20 years but have never had to replace a stove so this is new to me! Thanks!

The big thing is making sure it's already plumbed for gas in there. Otherwise, you might have to so substantial work to make it happen.

[Anonymous]

We had a plumber run the gas line. I don’t remember if there was a permit and inspection. It cost about $1500.

[Anonymous]

We looked into this and it ended up being way more expensive than we thought even though there was a gas line not far from our kitchen. First, the actual gas line wasn’t sufficient to add another appliance so that was going to be a grand or so. Then we needed to do some sort of grounding. Plus even though it’s gas, you need a certain type of electrical outlet (AND I think dedicated circuit?) because it doesn’t run 100% on gas. For whatever reason the outlet that was okay for the existing electric oven was not okay for a gas appliance. And don’t forget the cost of permits for all this work, which requires both an electrician and gas plumber. Oh and we were “lucky” that had we done all this work, our meter would have had sufficient BTUs meaning we wouldn’t have had to replace it. Depending on the capacity of your meter, there’s also a chance you could need a new gas meter and I heard Washington Gas isn’t so charitable about covering the cost of upgrading.

The point of all this is to be prepared that it may not be such a simple fix, so make sure you know that going into buying the house. Maybe you’ll be lucky and have everything in place already to swap it out. But after getting 3 quotes (and a 4th company coming out and saying it wasn’t even worth it b/c it would be so much work), I couldn’t get it below 4k. We decided to get a nice induction stove instead and love it. Very easy to control heat and no worrying about our kids burning their hands!

Maybe you’ll have better luck, but just keep in the back of your mind this could be a big project $$$.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. These are helpful considerations. We are planning to redo the whole kitchen in about 5 years so I certainly don't want to do anything that would require tearing it up before then.

For the induction folks -- did you have to replace your cookware? Will ordinary pots and pans still work?

- OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know you’re a gas cooker, but it does release pollutants into our homes. Would you consider switching to an induction instead?

But yeah a plumber will hook it up for you.

+1 They just made a law in CA to phase out gas. Induction is the way to go! You can use any pan that you can stick a magnet on the bottom of. Most stainless steel or cast iron is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know you’re a gas cooker, but it does release pollutants into our homes. Would you consider switching to an induction instead?

But yeah a plumber will hook it up for you.

+1 They just made a law in CA to phase out gas. Induction is the way to go! You can use any pan that you can stick a magnet on the bottom of. Most stainless steel or cast iron is fine.

Ugh, that rules out my usual pans. I hate stainless steel and cast-iron. I have some metal pots but my workhorse pans are Calphalon hard-anodized. I have four different sizes/styles and use them daily. And just tried the magnet test -- no go.

Oh well. I guess I will see what the plumber thinks about feasibility -- the inspector thought it was fully plumbed, but who knows, and also that might not account for the other issues people mention. Might have to deal with electric until we redo the kitchen.

- OP